"He denied that it came out of his pocketbook?" was the first remark he made.
"Denied it out and out. And then my thoughts turned naturally to Molly Green; for no other stranger had been in the room but them two. He said perhaps she had brought it in her petticoats from the Hall; but I don't think it could have been. I'm afraid--I'm afraid, Mr. Richard--that it must have dropped from his pocketbook."
Their eyes met: each hesitating to speak out the conviction lying at heart, notwithstanding there had been confidential secrets between them before to-day. Richard was thinking that he ought not to have married Bessy--at least, until it was cleared up.
"Why did you not tell me, Mrs. Gass?"
"It was in my mind to do so--I said a word or two--but then, you see, I couldn't think it was him that wrote it," was her answer. "Mrs. Cumberland told me she saw the anonymous letter itself; Mr. North showed it her; and that it was not a bit like any handwriting she ever met with. Suppose he is innocent--would it have been right for me to come out with a tale, even to you, Mr. Richard, that he might have been guilty?"
On this point Richard said no more. All the talking in the world now could not undo the marriage, and he was never one to reproach uselessly. Mrs. Gass resumed.
"If I had spoke ever so, I don't suppose it would have altered things, Mr. Richard. There was no proof; and, failing that, you wouldn't have liked to say anything at all to Miss Bessy. Any way they are man and wife now."
"I hope--I hope he did not write it!" said Richard, fervently.
Mrs. Gass gave a sweep with her arm to all the china together, as she bent her earnest face nearer to Richard's.
"Let's remember this much to our comfort, Mr. Richard: if it was him, he never thought to harm a hair of your brother's head. He must have wrote it to damage Alexander. Oliver Rane has looked upon Alexander as his mortal enemy--as a man who did him a right down bad turn and spoilt his prospects--as a man upon whom it was a'most a duty to be revenged."